Turn of Phrase Gone By

Rachel called Emilia, ‘Emilia’ for the first time recently. Up until now it has been ‘Beelia.’ It struck me as quite sad really, when children grow out of their quirky pronunciation of things. I am sure it is not the last time we’ll hear her shout for ‘Beelia,’ but eventually a lot of the things she used to say will be forgotten altogether, as we have those of the other children....

Well, they would have been, if I hadn’t written a lot of them down.

Grandad was called ‘Trantad.’ Ben often put in Ts where they didn’t belong. ‘Trelephant’ was one of these. He also used to leave out crucial letters. He’d talk about things being ‘inchenching’ – interesting. It is no wonder he can’t spell now. Aged 2, he called Grandma, ‘Marsh,’ presumably, from hearing us say we’re going to ‘Grandma’s.’

Ben’s pronunciation, has always been a little dodgy, he has a bit of a lisp. I remember wondering what on earth he could mean, when he described the Disney film Dinosaur, as being ‘a bit gay,’- he was trying to say ‘a bit scary.’

 I was very relieved when he grew out of one particular phase where everything he said sounded like the F word; ‘shark’ ‘fork’ ‘rocket’ could all easily be misconstrued. Fortunately he was quite a quiet child. Most alarmingly, was his ‘Thank you very much’ which was often met with quite a startled response before realisation dawned that he was actually being polite.

Present day Ben obviously talks properly, but occasionally a word that he has only ever seen written down will come out wrong. When I lost the ring on my necklace, inscribed with Patrick’s name, he told me that it was a bad ‘ommen.’ 

My favourite of theses mis-readings was from my friend’s son who was reading aloud to her about a Magic Ian, before she realised he was just reading wrongly the word ‘magician.’

A lot of the funny ways kids say things are common to all children, and just due to the peculiarity of the English language, that they haven’t quite mastered. It makes sense when they say; ‘I did be the farmer’,’ I am the shoppinger’, ‘I goed or I wented,’ and we know what they mean.

 My personal list of childhood grammatical errors, recorded by my father, included;

He drawed

He knowed

He swimmed

He tooked

He standed

He didn’t did it

I keeped

Look at my foots.

Apparently I always used to say ‘d’yes’ and my buzz word was ‘anyway.’ A spoon was a ‘spewn’ and things would be done in a ‘monent.’ A thing was a verb to me, as in ‘the car thinged today,’ suggesting something might have ‘falled off it.’

I used to leave the front off words too, saying things like, ‘’culiar’ and ‘larm clock,’ and talk of ‘blins’ meaning goblins. Also, of the reciprocal visits between my house and the house my friend from playgroup, I would say,

‘He’s been to mine and I’ve been to hims.’

Another conversational foible of my children, is to take a phrase, and leave out significant words, so it no longer makes any sense, for example, ‘Please may I get down from the table, thank you for my lovely dinner,’ Rachel has shortened to ‘thank you for my lovely table.’

Or the children combine two phrases into one, which then doesn’t really work.

Ben used to say ‘you’re welcome’ combined with ‘that’s all right’ and it would come out ‘that’s your welcome,’ which means nothing.

Rachel makes me laugh, playing hide and seek, as instead of saying ‘ready or not – here I come!’ she shouts ‘Coming or not!’  Again, utter nonsense.

Another expression of hers is ‘in my WHOLE EVER.’ A combination of ‘best in the whole wide world’ and ‘best ever’, leaving out the essential word best.

Ben used to have his own version of ‘once upon a time’ or ‘one day’ and insist you start a story ‘one little day.’

I have lists and lists of their funny expressions, and the day is creeping up where no-one will refer to the doorbell as the ‘ding-bell’ or ask me to ring it, as Rachel does, by saying ‘Do the Bing Bong then!’ Nobody will be telling me how stuff is ‘ridiclious’ and ‘fablious anymore, or talk like Patrick about the ‘hosstipal.’

I think now, I’ll miss the kids-speak, but it is such a gradual thing, I am sure when we get there I won’t even notice it has gone.